Cruising the Baltic is the perfect way to see a large number of cities in a short space of time, however there were a few aspects of this cruise which detracted from the 5* potential. We chose this cruise primarily because of the Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland ports but 5 months before departure Latvia was removed from the itinerary with no explanation other than “operational reasons”. The cruise director told us it was the first time they’d stopped at Kiel and they had no plans to stop there again! This was very apparent as the excursions were very very late to be posted (a couple of weeks before departure) and were essential to get you out of the very uninspiring port city to the more picturesque cities of Hamburg or Lubeck. This was really poor customer experience. The second disappointment was on the morning we were due to dock at Visby we were told it was too windy and we couldn’t dock. Another huge disappointment which detracted from our cruise experience significantly. Now I understand things can change, but the way Princess handled the planned itinerary change and the last minute removal of a port was exceptionally poor. We have never even received an email from Princess, and no gesture of goodwill (future cruise credit of onboard credit would’ve been a nice gesture). This has really taken the shine off a potentially fantastic cruise, and would’ve been very easy to avoid. In summary, highly recommend cruising the Baltic in principle but beware itinerary changes if you’re particularly keen on specific ports.
